Initially born as an analyst psychologist, Dion Fortune (born Violet Mary Firth; 1890-1946) was able to distinguish herself within the English occult milieu of the first half of the last century, first within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, then in the an occult school she founded, the Fraternity of the Inner Light. Let's retrace all the stages of her life together and of her work.
di Silvia Pepe
Cover: Dion Fortune (1890 - 1946)
Violet Mary Firth was born in Llandudno, Wales, on December 6, 1890 in the early hours of dawn, from the union between Arthur Firth and Sarah Jane. She was one of the leading figures of the Western Esoteric Tradition in England of the last century but, before being what she is known for even today, she was a great woman, who knew how to operate in the earthly manifestation on different planes: a Soul "connected on every plane", as you would have said. During Her earthly life, Violet has lived through each phase giving the best of herself, and transmuting the periods of imbalance into a push to launch a new transmutation.
Violet was an enterprising and creative child who, grown up in a peaceful family environment, was able to express herself creatively in her particular interests. From early childhood she Violet she said she saw some episodes of her from her past lives of her, also describing the details of her, in particular of a life in Atlantis as a Priestess. Having been studious people in different fields, her parents welcomed this gift of her with an open mind that allowed Violet to broaden her abilities. When she reached her adolescence, her ancestral memories returned to be dormant, but despite the delicate phase of her existence, the study of energy beyond matter began. In high school she wrote her first Poems and was awarded by the school itself as the best writer. The poems she wrote in 1905 were later published in a book, More Violets, which I am working on translating. They were an expression of his approach to the natural elements in manifestation. Her talents were emerging, and although she was still a young age, it was also clear to her parents that she was a peculiar girl with a keen talent for occult science.
Given her particular interest in herbs as an expression of energy in the event, after completing her basic studies, she accepted a job as a gardener in a College, where unfortunately she got into a bad experience that later made her very unstable. Violet was victim of a psychic attack by Dr Lillias Hamilton, Director of Studley Horticultural College in Warwickshire, where she had started her first work experience. This type of attack, unfortunately used in a conscious and / or unconscious form by many human beings, is invisible to the earthly eye but is able to generate imbalances on all levels of manifestation, be they etheric, emotional and last but not least material. Violet she reported this bad experience from which she came out exhausted and with not a few emotional imbalances in her book that she wrote years later: Psychic self-defense, in which he was able to excellently describe those apparently invisible as well as destructive attacks. Following this negative experience, Violet needed to stay with her parents for the period of time it took her to recover emotionally and psychologically.
Despite the period of imbalance on all fronts, Violet did not stop taking an interest in esoteric science and the reaction of the psyche of the human being in the face of imbalances. In the "stagnation" period that she needed to recover from the psychic attack, she read many books on the subject. As is well known, nothing is by chance, so that period of profound darkness awakened in the young girl the desire to deepen the subject through the study of psychology: Violet enrolled at the University of London, where she graduated with honors in psychology in a short time, becoming one of the best and best paid psychotherapists in London at just 23. That period gave her a lot of satisfactions, but the motivation to deepen research in the occult field has always been inherent in her, to get those answers that science could not give her. Thus it was that, comparing with her colleagues and observing numerous patients who fell into the same imbalances after psychotherapy, she decided to deepen her studies of her through esoteric science to seek explanations for that emptiness that she found in science.
In the clinic where she worked she was attracted to some conferences organized by the Theosophical Society, she participated in, feeling that somehow they would lead her on the Path. She was not mistaken about her: that moment was really the beginning of a new path that allowed her to access her talents again, to take advantage of her telepathy and clairvoyance, which had remained dormant in her since childhood. The beginning of that Path rejoined the link in the chain that she had broken in adolescence, when she was the victim of the psychic attack, which led her to completely bury her gifts. Violet, therefore, awakened her memories and went back to studying occult science.
Continuing on the Path, Violet shared her studies with many people, comparing aspects on different levels. In one of her encounters with people who engaged in occult study, in 1917 she met Dr. Theodore Moriarty, an expert in the occult sciences who applied psychology and various forms of alchemy, both in material and etheric form, to esoteric healing. Moriarty was a solitary person, a great scholar of the hermetic art capable of generating visible and palbable transmutations even on the material level. He perceived and visualized the aura, he knew how to trace past lives and he did not limit himself to simple vision, but he delivered a clear message to his patients. The evaluation of the unresolved experiences of past lives that affected the present incarnation and the possible solution, were for him the basis of healing.
Violet was very impressed by his calm but determined manner; few words, but exhaustive. His great wisdom went beyond the boundaries of material science, but what struck Violet the most was that he was not just an educated man, but the essence of what she was explaining. Thus it was that Dr. Theodore Moriarty soon became, in effect, her Master, to whom she dedicated a book in her lifetime: The secrets of Dr. Taverner. For Violet, the period that followed was very intense. She had finally rediscovered her Path and was delighted to be able to deepen her studies, life after life. In 1919 some common acquaintances led her to come across the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which immediately attracted her interest: she immediately felt attracted and perceived that another large portal was opening on her Path . Violet was eventually introduced to the Order by Maiya Tranchall-Hayes, who later became one of the emerging figures in His Path, a great friend, as well as His tutor.
Upon entering the Order he had to choose his magical Name: Deo not luck, a name with great significance for Memories relating to His past lives, which became abbreviated Dion Fortune. In that period Violet was reborn and never as then felt she was "at home": some brothers said that her smile at that time was a flash of light that illuminated the Souls. Violet "then knocked on the door of the Temple", she was accepted and had her first Initiation at the Alpha et Omega Temple of the Stella Matutina which JW Brodie-Innes was responsible for. Dion Fortune stated that during the initiation ceremony she felt a complete restructuring of her aura, damaged by the psychic attack that occurred during her adolescence. That moment was for her the Beginning of the real journey on the Path.
The theoretical and practical study continued with Moriarty and with the Order of the Golden Dawn, in which he quickly rose in rank, but a strong dispute emerged with Moina Mathers, at the time you wrote in 1920 The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage. The text, written in order to highlight the importance of polarity and Sacred Union on different levels, was attacked by Moina Mathers, wife of McGregor Mathers, one of the founders of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Moina attacked her asking her to withdraw the text from the market as it spoke of polarity, a subject that was dealt with only in the internal Second Order, and could not have been in the public domain. Dion Fortune replied, asserting that she was not yet in the Second Order, she could not have known anything, and in any case she would never have allowed herself to make public a concept by which she would have sworn secrecy. Indeed, the concept of polarity, which in the century we live in is well written in many texts, was for the few at the time, and Dion Fortune had come to understand its essence only through practical operations. Practice has always been her way of understanding, of reaching the essence of the vibrations, of the concept, of the matter with which she intended to be in contact. Thus was also transcribed one of his greatest works that he wrote in the years to come, after ten years of long work and notes in his Magic Diary.
Obviously Dion, who had promised herself to uphold Justice, to work for the Truth, in Faith and in Service, he did not stop the publication of the book, he stressed that it was an abuse of power, and that those who wanted to hold exclusive power, without giving what the uninitiated could easily understand, should not step on the Sacred Path. As is always the case, every obstacle is the launch push for a fresh start, so Dion Fortune soon after took it upon himself to write Healthy Occultism, a book in which he stressed that Truth must be distinct from the ego that often emerges within the Orders.
In 1922 on a beautiful full moon night a Chalice well, at the foot of the Holy Mountain of Avalon, Dion Fortune met Charles Thomas Loveday, with whom a great harmony was immediately born. Charles Thomas Loveday he was very interested in the Path and his complete faith in the projects of Dion Fortune, on the Path of the Great Work, led him in a short time to be one of his greatest friends and followers. In the near future, he sold some of his properties to buy land at the foot of the Tor, in Well House Lane, between the two waters, with the intention of having a Place, in a Sacred Land, where to continue his studies and magical operations. Everything was going well and Dion was finally able to be the Essence for which she had incarnated. The years to come were for her an expansion of the Force in Manifestation.
Shortly before leaving her physical body, Moriarty asked Maiya to continue working with Dion Fortune and to stay with her. He knew both of them well and knew that together they could manifest a very strong vibration. It was not difficult for Maiya to respect Moriarty's wishes, as the deep bond with Dion Fortune had already been created. The relationship between Maiya and Violet became more and more intense, so much so that they worked together every day, theoretically and practically deepening the occult science on every plane of manifestation.
In 1923 Moriarty left his earthly robes. Dion Fortune clothed himself in inner silence and communicated with him on the upper floors, asking him how he should proceed. And that was when the answer was given to her. The Master asked her to continue the work they had begun together, involving those who had been her students. So it was. At the behest of the Master, many of them followed the Path of Dion Fortune, of which Moriarty had a high esteem. He knew he would set up his own School. Some of Moriarty's students then collaborated in the growth of the Fraternity that Dion Fortune, Charles Thomas Loveday and Maiya Tranchell Hayes were creating in the meantime.
Thus was born in 1924 Fraternity of the Inner Light, His Occult School. The work of study, research and magical operation was expanding and many people asked to join the Order. Dion personally took care of sensitizing people who approached the subject for the first time, giving the necessary foundations to be able to later choose their own Path. He stated that those who had already walked this Path in past Lives, even if they could not remember with the memory relative to the earthly mind, would have already known the subject and would have "only" revisited it in order to continue from where they had it. left.
The identification of the Higher Self, the integration between the micro and the macro in any form, the awareness and recognition of energies, and the vibrations that interact with earthly beings were the basic concepts to be able to lay the foundations for futures. adepts to operate in absolute safety. Dion demanded a lot from his students, but his lessons were always very informal, as he asserted that the student must be comfortable with him in order to learn better. The period that followed was dedicated to the practice and education of new students and, last but not least, to the writing of important works, still studied today in different Orders. His book The training and work of an initiate, published in 1930, which Dion Fortune wrote in terms understandable even to the uninitiated, was written in order to sensitize those whom she called "the wayfarers" to the occult science. It illustrates through key concepts, the essential points of the formation of the initiate, step by step.
βThe wider its diffusion among people, the better the purpose of the structure that the Inner Plane uses. Do not allow anyone to walk away because they feel they are not ready or because they believe the work is too deep. There is always something for everyone; everyone can take as much as he needs and make use of it. Obviously, no one can make use of what he does not have, but even what the smallest cup can give, it is the true water of life. We are not obliged to go to the well once; we can come back again and again, with our pitcher. So don't let anyone be desperate or fearful, there is always space and something for everyone. "
In the years that followed, Dion felt the calling of the gods Disembodied masters and began an operation in mediumistic trance that lasted a long time, where she channeled and transcribed a Work that was not immediately published, as she and her followers unanimously decided to keep it as an internal Work of the Order, being material exclusively for the Initiates. She was born there Cosmic Doctrine, a work that hides important concepts concerning the practical operation that an initiate must know.
βUnpublished until 1949, it was then printed only in a private edition, as Dion Fortune and his group considered the material too dangerous for general circulation. It was only illustrated later, for the first time in a later edition, by a close collaborator of Dion Fortune, CT Loveday β.
Preface to the Cosmic Doctrine
βWhat is revealed when reading the Mystical Qabalah is the Love and Firmness with which you expound certain topics, still unknown at the time and in the hands of a few, since every student who approaches the Initiatic Path could be facilitated.
Preface to the Mystical Qabalah
Being open to confrontation, and at the same time never having finished studying and experimenting, being humble and getting involved, going beyond the common morality, keeping your beliefs firm and giving total availability for any teaching of your own competence, have made her a special woman. Dion Fortune, before being an Initiate, an Adept, the channel of a new Aeon, was a Woman who gave Herself to the Great Work. "
The Mystical Qabalah it was published in 1935, after ten years of intense practical work. As already mentioned, this Work is the final draft of the notes of his Magical Diary. A long work in which Dion Fortune became the very Essence of the Sephiroth with which he came into contact, recognizing the correspondences as vibrations that resonated on the same wave line. The Mystical Qabalah it is still today the supporting structure of the Temple in the Initiatic Path it created. Queensborough Terrace, his London home, became, after the creation of His Fraternity, the official seat. There, he studied, practiced, and often gave introductory lectures there.
In one of his many lectures open to the public, in 1927 in London where he lived, Dion Fortune met the doctor Thomas Penry Evans, with whom a good friendship was immediately created. On the same day of their meeting, Thomas and Dion talked a lot about esoteric science, given their very similar ideas. An excellent harmony developed between them concerning occult work. Dion then introduced Thomas to his group, where he was welcomed and welcomed. The two rediscovered in a short time to be the mirror of each other in the work in polarity and for this reason they decided to get married, as She asserted that when a couple works well in polarity they must keep the connection strong: so it was. Thomas Penry Evans and Violet Mary Firth became married on April 7, 1927. Thomas was nicknamed "Merlin" by the Brothers of the group, as he was said to be an excellent wizard. The two worked together in the Fraternity for many years as Priest and Priestess, in perfect harmony.
βThe knowledge of sex in terms of Sacred Union is far from the definition of impurity, on the contrary, it determines the source of the transcendible. Dion Fortune knew, given his previous incarnations, that in the union of Chokmah and Binah there is an important manifestation that can become a great asset. She remembered that in Atlantis it was customary to select priests and priestesses in order to establish the Magical Union, as well as one's personality and duality as typical factors of earthly energy. The goals were to correct personality defects, remedy deficiencies or excesses, reestablish connection with the higher self, and not least to be impersonal in magical work. When Dion Fortune and his Priest worked in order to find a solution to any problem, in a ritual form, by resonating the energy, symbolically it was resolved for the whole of humanity, since at that moment the Priest and the Priestess were part of the soul of the Great Mother reconnected to the Cosmos and that energy was free to resonate in Humanity. Obviously, practices of this kind were limited to the upper grades under oath of secrecy. "
Commentary on the Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune
The magical work between Thomas and Dion created a great Force in the group, through which the Temple resonated well protected. Until 1939 everything went very well but, as is well known, the cycles present in existence create waves of ascent and descent that are highlighted in the experiences of earthly life. In that year Thomas decided to continue his earthly existence with a colleague known in the hospital where he worked as a doctor, he left the Fraternity taking with him a lot of material inside the Order and definitively left Dion Fortune, who strongly perceived the imbalance created by the separation. , first of all as regards the Order itself. She realized that she was no longer protected in occult work, as an important member of the group had interrupted the flow of the Group Mind.
It was the beginning of the Second World War and humanity's frequency was on the decline. His travels from London to Glastonbury became infrequent and, as a result, study and operations in the Temple of Avalon turned out to be sporadic. All this further lowered the frequency of his work. Furthermore, the Brothers and Sisters of the Order at that time were rarely able to reach the Fraternity to carry out the operations together with the group; then there began to be dissonances between the components. Dion's meetings with outsiders also suffered a drastic interruption, given the unpromising historical period. Everything seemed to be inexorably in decline. Dion Fortune, in the deep darkness that he perceived, decided to transmute the type of magical operation and convey it in the phase that humanity was experiencing. He also converted the writing of his articles by him in the Fraternity magazine into letters that were sent directly to the addresses of people interested in the subject, in order to keep the Force and resonance high. The letters he sent were magnetized by herself and after the fourth letter Dion Fortune felt that the symbols resounded in full with the invoked Force. Every meditation exercise that was used for the students at the beginning of the Path was also addressed to all outsiders. The aim was to develop a frequency line of the collective soul of the population of the West in order to win the war.
Many meditations invoked the Forces of Sacred Land of Avalon. The people who participated in these meditations met on the astral plane at the foot of the Sacred Mountain, where the Forces of the two waters flowed, and all worked together to make the vibrations flow into the Sacred Line. The Magical Battle of England, also transcribed in a book following his departure, had begun. Even today the elderly residents of Glastonbury claim that the war was won thanks to the Magic Battle of Dion Fortune.
The end of the war was obviously a moment everyone expected. The energy of the recovery was finally perceptible, after a long period of annihilating vibrations. In the fall of 1945 Dion Fortune was able to go to his again Glastonbury Temple, with great joy. But although she was happy, she felt that she was out of balance. She did a long meditation and from the astral plane she clearly saw that her grounding in the Demonstrating Forces was not fully connected. That same evening, on the autumn equinox, Dion Fortune communicated to his group that this would be the last equinox in that incarnation for her.
An excessive sense of physical fatigue was present in her; during the winter she decided to return to London to her home on Queensborough Terrace. Shortly after the Christmas holidays she went to a hospital for severe dental pain, where she had a form of acute leukemia. She died shortly after, at the age of 55, on January 8, 1946 at the Middlesex hospital in London. Those who stood by her said that she had never looked so beautiful: her energy enveloped the place where she was, as bright as the glow of the first Lights of Dawn at the Tor. Violet glowed with her Inner Light.
"I hear you,
Dion Fortune
I feel.
I am on the rise, in the incessant flow of a vibration in unison.
I can be part of the essence of Kether.
We will meet again, at the Dawn of the Inner Light β.
By His will, His remains were brought from London to Glastonbury, on a last voyage, at the Dawn of a long night. Dion Fortune was buried in the cemetery on the hill of the Land of Avalon, so that the Gods who live on the Holy Mountain could take care of the Path she had been a part of. The energy of the Tor watches over her and calls those who continue the Journey to her presence.
Returning to the Source, we set out to bring back to the Light all that has been handed down "from mouth to ear" and to continue on the Initiatic Path, at the Dawn of the Inner Light, as you would have liked. Our duty is not to let the teachings fade away. Our Will is to be at the Service, so that this does not happen.
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